Okay, so, failing my ability to come up for a good theme, I decided to combine a whole collaboration of ideas of mine that wouldn’t really render a long post themselves. And combining these short ideas makes for a fudging huge post that you most likely wouldn’t want to read if you were just told the size of the post. Confused? You should be. So am I.

So, we’re going to do several things today, so hold onto your knickers, it’ll be a bumpy ride. We will: List recent London Telegraph birth announcements, list multiples featured on ABC Family-turned-CMT show, Nanny 911, rant about a kid on It’s Me or the Dog, and, of course, go over popular (and my favorite) smushes!

First up, the stylings of recent Leo babies from the ever-lovely London Telegraph:

Note: Marco and Charles, Deirdre and John, Jack and Ava, and Eamon and James may not be twins, but were listed as the same age, so I considered them twins.

My favorite name set of the group? Probably Molly, Natalie, and Rebecca, but only because the whole family of kids had good names — With the exception of oddball Kaeley. Where the fudge did she come from??? Worst set? Probably Kadin and Koby. Ugh. At the least, they could have changed the spellings to Cayden and Kobe, or, if they wanted to further improve it, they could have altered the names to Aiden and Jacoby. I’m still a bit surprised about two separate Alexandra/Amanda twins.

And now, onto my rant about a little girl I saw on Animal Planet’s hit show, It’s Me or the Dog, starring Victoria Stilwell. I can’t remember the family’s name, or even the dog’s name, for that matter, but I do remember the couple had a little girl whose name astounded me in all the wrong ways. Channeling A Boy Named Sue, I bring you: A Girl Named Connor.

That really disgusted me. People considering them is one thing, but actually seeing a person named Connor? A girl named Connor? It was a horrible feeling. Horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible. I don’t know how much I can say it.

And now, for the smushiest part of the post! Yes, smushes! Here are some of the most popular and/or best (in my opinion) smushie names.

Just so you know: I certainly do not think all of these smushie names are great. Some are downright mean. (*coughcough* Jaden Emberlynn *coughcough*) But some I do absolutely adore, including Anneliese, Araminta, Hannelore, Isanne, Maribel, Maricela, Marisol, and Marlena, and, admittedly, Jolene. (I’m sorry, the Dolly Parton love my mother instilled in me is creeping its way into the baby naming sector of my brain! “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, JO-LEEEN, please don’t take him just because you can…”)

One thing I love about smushes is that they kill two (or more) metaphorical birds with one single, metaphorical stone. Have a Grandma Louise, while the DH has Nana Eleanor? Luella is a perfect choice! Great-grandma Josephine and Auntie Eileen? Jolene to the rescue! (And specially for Emmy Jo,) Or perhaps your mother’s middle name is Anne, and hubby’s mama has a middle of Elisabeth? Anneliese will help sort things out for you.

Just a note: I am so not going to add tags until later. I’m wiped out just from this post!

I’d like to mention that Raine Lee and Rylee Ann are my sister’s best friend’s nieces. Congrats, Katrina, on your new nieces!!

My favorites were probably Amelia Rose and Abilene Rose for the girls (Abilene completely off-handed me here, I just found out about this name! Expect a NoTD shortly on the name). For the boys, Harper David was the clear winner. I’m just thrilled that Harper was used on a boy! It’s definitely on my Wildcard list, as of now.

My least favorites are… bad. Very, very, very bad. I feel so sorry for Jaxz JoAnnah. (And Serenity-Ann, but she’s not nearly as bad.) They couldn’t have at least used Jazz Joanna? Or, in a perfect world, Jasmine Josephine? Sigh… I pity that kid, truly and dearly. Who else thinks the parents were illiterate 14-year-olds? The boy, on the other hand, isn’t completely terrible… Just a horrible spelling of a very bad name to start. Rhyder takes the cake here, and I can only imagine how many times he’ll say R-H-Y-D-E-R in his life. (I’m guessing somewhere around the billions.) Names like Rashad and Isaiel I’ll discount on a ‘foreign parents’ charge, but if these people are Anglo-Saxon, they have no excuse for those names. (Kamrin, Jonathen, and Kayden almost took top prize for Worst Boy’s Name.)

So, what do you think? Are the 2 Abbys, 3 Isabella/Izabelles, 3 Lily variants, 3 Paiges, 2 Peyton/Paytons, 3 Zoe(y)s, 2 Logans, 2 Masons, and 2 R(h)yders surprising to you? Are you surprised at the amount of Belles in the middle place? The Lynns, Roses, Maries, Raes, James’, Douglas’ — Are they too much?

***These names were gotten from birth announcements during June/early July of ’09 in my area.***